Na Rais perfomance.

✊🏾✨🏳️‍🌈NA RAÍS.🏳️‍🌈✨🇨🇼 It was an honor to be part of OPEN Delft’s Queer Night during the Keti Koti / Dia di Abolishon commemoration and festivities. For this event, I created a solo performance sharing my journey as a young queer artist from Curaçao. I wanted to be bold, honest, and vulnerable.Curaçao is a beautiful, warm island. But growing up, it wasn’t always warm to queer people, especially not to queer kids. While things are changing, there’s still a long way to go. Our queer community continues to rise, standing firmly against homophobia, bullying, and the religious narratives that have long been used to strip us of our basic rights. My hair symbolized direction, resilience, and a map to freedom just as our ancestors once made and followed. The pearls and diamonds represented uniqueness and richness. The glitter and glow on my body honored the strength and power of my dark, melanin rich skin, that as a queer person, has had to endure so extra opinions, abuse, judgments, taboos, and more. Thanks to the gifted hands of Annysha Clarinda for putting it together. I danced my worries and pains away on the beautiful and innovative Caribbean-jazz rhythm infused with the resilient and revolutionary music of tambú by the multicultural treasure of the Caribbean that is Siegfried Hart. I wore a Curaçaon cultural Seú skirt with a white corset to hold it all together. Cleavage on display, unapologetically. Because my skin deserves to shine, to be seen, and to be celebrated. This look wouldn’t have been possible without the multifaceted artist and human that is Nashita Scoop. I’m grateful for the care from the entire Delftspeil production team. Thanks to Raydaniël Petroudis for providing me with fragments of the documentary All Inclusive Curaçao now available on NPO Start. And a huge thanks to the one and only, my good friend, Mushroommosis Thank you for speaking my name at tables I never imagined sitting at. I see you, dear. Photos by: @armin_septiexan @esther_de_cuijper_photography @delftopzondag Flamboyant tree visuals by Kinshasa.